Atlanta Braves: The next 3 candidates for contract extensions
By Scott Henry
As noted in another post, Spencer Strider is a tremendous young pitcher, who is the odds-on favorite to take home NL Rookie of the Year this year. He currently owns a 3.04/1.97/2.54 ERA/FIP/SIERA slash line per FanGraphs.
His Baseball Savant page shows us he is in the top of the league in K%, fastball velocity, and whiff %. He loves to overpower hitters with his fastball (which averages 98.2 mph), and it is also extra effective because it has 1.8 more inches of vertical movement than the average fastball. However, his slider is a force as well. He has a 52.5% whiff rate and .157 batting average against that slider.
The pitchers that Spencer Strider’s Baseball Savant page compares him to are Shohei Ohtani, Corbin Burnes, and Dylan Cease. If you are going to be grouped with anyone as a young pitcher, that is an amazing group to be a part of.
He is an ace in the making, and I can only image the Braves will do whatever it takes to lock him down long term. Strider is the most logical “next man up” to receive an extension, and I’d estimate he could haul in somewhere in the eight-year, $100 million range.